Bishops urge David Cameron to take in more refugees

Bishops urge Cameron to take in up to 50,000 refugees in the next five years. Credit: Reuters

Church of England bishops have accused the Government of ignoring their offers to provide housing and support to thousands of refugees amid the European-wide crisis.

In a letter signed by 84 bishops David Cameron is urged to make a "meaningful and substantial response to the scale of human suffering we see daily".

They call on Prime Minister to up the number of refugees the UK will take in from 20,000 to 50,000 over the next five years.

The Rt Rev Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, said it is "disheartening that we have not received any substantive reply" from Mr Cameron.

Whilst acknowledging the announced resettlement programme from camps neighbouring Syria, he stressed: "there is a real urgency to this issue with those increasingly being forced from their land as their homes are literally bombed into the ground.

" As the fighting intensifies, as the sheer scale of human misery becomes greater, the Government's response seems increasingly inadequate to meet the scale and severity of the problem."

A Downing Street spokesman said: "We have announced that the UK will resettle an additional 20,000 Syrian refugees over the course of this parliament.

"The UK is the second largest donor in the world after America, helping refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Our total contribution to the Syrian crisis is more than £1.12 billion."